All Articles Tagged As: pulsars

First signal received by future telescope (3/8/2010)

An historic milestone was reached recently in Australia's bid to host the Square Kilometre Array telescope -- a future international radio telescope that will be the world's largest and most sensitive. ...> Full Article

Nature's most precise clocks may make 'galactic GPS' possible (1/11/2010)

Radio astronomers have uncovered 17 millisecond pulsars in our galaxy by studying unknown high-energy sources detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The astronomers made the discovery in less than three months. Such a jump in the pace of locating these hard-to-find objects holds the promise of using them as a kind of "galactic GPS" to detect gravitational waves passing near Earth. ...> Full Article

Fermi large area telescope points the way to new millisecond pulsars (1/10/2010)

The discovery of 17 new millisecond pulsars was announced at the American Astronomical Society Meeting by scientists from the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Space Science Division and a team of international researchers. ...> Full Article

Fermi sees brightest-ever blazar flare (12/14/2009)

A galaxy located billions of light-years away is commanding the attention of NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and astronomers around the globe. Thanks to a series of flares that began Sept. 15, the galaxy is now the brightest source in the gamma-ray sky -- more than 10 times brighter than it was in the summer. ...> Full Article

Goddard-led GEMS mission to explore the polarized universe (8/9/2009)

An exciting new astrophysics mission led by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will provide a revolutionary window into the universe. Named the Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small Explorer (GEMS), the satellite will be the first to systematically measure the polarization of cosmic X-ray sources. ...> Full Article

NASA's Fermi telescope probes dozens of pulsars (7/8/2009)

With NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, astronomers now are getting their best look at those whirling stellar cinders known as pulsars. In two studies published in the July 2 edition of Science Express, international teams have analyzed gamma-rays from two dozen pulsars, including 16 discovered by Fermi. Fermi is the first spacecraft able to identify pulsars by their gamma-ray emission alone. ...> Full Article

NASA's Fermi Telescope reveals a population of radio-quiet gamma-ray pulsars (7/7/2009)

A new class of pulsars detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is solving the mystery of previously unidentified gamma-ray sources and helping scientists understand the mechanisms behind pulsar emissions. ...> Full Article

'Missing link': Revealing fast-spinning pulsar mysteries (5/24/2009)

Changes observed in a unique-double-star system are giving astronomers a glimpse of what they believe is the mechanism for "spinning up" the superfast neutron stars known as millisecond pulsars. ...> Full Article

Active galaxies flare and fade in Fermi telescope all-sky movie (4/28/2009)

The gamma-ray sky comes alive in a movie made from data acquired by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope during its first three months of operations. Gamma rays from sources near and far turn the sky into a hypnotic froth. The sun arcs serenely across the northern sky as active galaxies called blazars flare up and fade out. ...> Full Article

A young pulsar shows its hand (4/7/2009)

A small, dense object only twelve miles in diameter is responsible for this beautiful X-ray nebula that spans 150 light years. At the center of this image made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is a very young and powerful pulsar, known as PSR B1509-58, or B1509 for short. This image is being unveiled as part of the "Around the World in 80 Telescopes" webcast as part of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. ...> Full Article

Geriatric pulsar still kicking (3/2/2009)

The oldest isolated pulsar ever detected in X-rays has been found with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This very old and exotic object turns out to be surprisingly active. ...> Full Article

NASA's Fermi telescope unveils a dozen new pulsars (1/9/2009)

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered 12 new gamma-ray-only pulsars and has detected gamma-ray pulses from 18 others. The finds are transforming our understanding of how these stellar cinders work. ...> Full Article

First gamma-ray-only pulsar observation opens new window on stellar evolution (10/19/2008)

Pulsar is the first one known to 'blink' only in gamma rays ...> Full Article

Integral locates origin of high-energy emission from Crab Nebula (9/2/2008)

Scientists have been able to locate where particles in the vicinity of the rotating neutron-star in the Crab Nebula are accelerated to immense energies ...> Full Article

In Unique Stellar Laboratory, Einstein's Theory Passes Strict, New Test (7/6/2008)

Double pulsar is the only known system of its kind. ...> Full Article

Measuring a pulsar's smoothness (6/5/2008)

In one of the first significant scientific findings from a huge collaborative effort to detect gravitational waves, the team operating the Laser Interferometer Gravity-wave Observatory (LIGO) is reporting this week that the pulsar at the center of the Crab Nebula must have an extremely smooth surface. ...> Full Article

Scientists edge closer to unlocking secrets of mysterious Crab Pulsar (6/3/2008)

Like a celestial top, the spinning neutron star known as the Crab Pulsar is slowing, a phenomenon that astronomers have yet to fully understand. ...> Full Article

Quirky binary pulsar challenges theories (5/19/2008)

An ongoing sky survey using the Cornell-managed Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico has turned up a massive, fast-spinning binary pulsar with a mysterious elongated orbit ...> Full Article

Searching the heavens (5/6/2008)

A new space mission, due to launch this month, is going to shed light on some of the most extreme astrophysical processes in nature - including pulsars, remnants of supernovae, and supermassive black holes. It could even help us comprehend the origin and distribution of dark matter ...> Full Article

White Dwarf Pulses Like A Pulsar (1/3/2008)

New observations from Suzaku, a joint Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA X-ray observatory, have challenged scientists' conventional understanding of white dwarfs. Observers had believed white dwarfs were inert stellar corpses that slowly cool and fade away, but the new data tell a completely different story. ...> Full Article

Stars caught in bizarre death-dance (9/15/2007)

Astronomers played a key role in discovering one of the most bizarre objects in space: a star "skeleton" of very low mass that is orbiting and being slowly consumed by a pulsar, or remains of a second massive star, that is itself spinning faster than a kitchen blender. ...> Full Article